Tears streamed down forward Daniel Gomis' face as he sat in
a corner of the Beavers' locker room. The more he contemplated his slow-footed
display against the Eagles, the more the fury grew. It formed a pit deep in his
stomach, a pain of sorts he felt desperate not to revisit.

"I just had this rage in me," Gomis said, his eyes glazing
over as he reflected upon that Nov. 10 night. "I was like, OK, we have to get
to work. We've got to do what we have to do to win games."

The loss marked a turning point. Not just for the Senegalese big man,
but for coach Craig Robinson's entire collection of underachieving players. Ten
days removed from an embarrassing defeat, OSU boasts a 2-1 record. It is fresh
off a nationally televised road win over Maryland, a complete performance that
silenced some of the calls for a Robinson firing. At least for now.

Of course, the season is still plenty young. At this point,
it's unclear which game more accurately represented the 2013-14 Beavers. Was it
the five-point loss to a fringe Division I team? Or was it Sunday's seven-point
ousting of an NCAA Tournament hopeful?

OSU believes it was the latter. This team has experienced a
paradigm shift, players say. It now understands a Pac-12 pedigree comes with no
guarantees.

"We know how good we are, and we know how good we can be,"
swingman Victor Robbins said. "But we can't take nobody lightly. We took
(Coppin State) lightly, and they made us look bad."

The Beavers drifted away from the game plan against an
undermanned, undersized Eagles squad. Rather than pound the paint, they
stationed themselves along the perimeter. Lackluster defense hardly offset a
barrage of long-range misses.

As a frustrated fan base lambasted Robinson's coaching in
online message boards, the team moved forward. Reflecting on the Coppin State loss
proved too painful.

The next day, players delivered a scrappy practice. They
fought for loose balls. They hustled back on defense.

It translated to the Portland game. With forward Devon
Collier back from suspension, the Beavers showed flashes of a
postseason-caliber crew. They muscled into the key with ease. They shot a
blistering 54.5 percent from the field. And though it struggled to shrug off
the pesky Pilots, OSU built necessary confidence with a positive result.

Still, doubters dismissed the six-point win with logic: The
Beavers were supposed to beat a team
picked to finish near the bottom of the West Coast Conference. Where's the
proof they can compete come Pac-12 play?

Three days later, OSU visited the White House. Players
chucked up shots on the presidential basketball court and listened to a
presentation by Secret Service members. Eventually, they discussed hoops with
President Barack Obama, Robinson's brother-in-law.

"I have a lot of things to worry about," Robbins recalled
the commander in chief telling them. "I'm not trying to be all stressed out
when I check out the Oregon State score. You need to help out (Craig)."

The president sat behind the Beavers' bench the following
afternoon during the Beavers' 90-83 win over the Terrapins. He watched, along
with nearly 15,000 other fans at Comcast Center, as Collier and guard Roberto
Nelson hung a combined 60 points on an ACC defense.

While Maryland coach Mark Turgeon credited OSU for a lights-out showing in his
postgame presser, the Beavers partook in no major celebration. They high-fived
each other for snapping the Terps' 30-game home winning streak in nonconference
games. They congratulated Nelson and Collier for carrying them to victory.

About five minutes after returning to the locker room,
though, the chatter dissipated.

"I think we handled it the way we should've handled it,"
center Angus Brandt said. "We didn't act like we had just won the national
championship."

On Tuesday morning, Robinson was reviewing the win in his
office with Nelson when he realized they were six minutes late to practice.
Coach and player darted to nearby Gill Coliseum, where the Beavers were already
running through full drills.

Robinson had planned a pre-practice speech. The Maryland win was just one win, he
was going to say. It's time to get back
to work and prove it was no fluke.

At the time, Robinson didn't realize junior guard Challe
Barton had gathered his teammates for a similar talk moments earlier.

"It was before Coach had even walked in the gym," Brandt
said. "So when he walked in, we were going hard. You know, it was what he
wanted to see."

OSU is in the midst of a nine-day hiatus between games, a
lengthy break that figures to test its newfound paradigm. Can the Beavers
maintain their focus for Tuesday's home matchup against Southern Illinois
Edwardsville?

They need to, players explained. OSU may have notched a
noteworthy road win, but it's capable of stumbling against anyone.

"We're still at the point in this program where we can't
make any assumptions about games we're going to win," Robinson said. "We can't
do it yet."